REMEMBERING RUTHERFORD: Caves concealed runaways, rebels & revelers

6:38 PM,
Feb. 23, 2013

This snapshot, circa 1933, shows how the mouth of Rainbow Cave was enclosed for the Black Cat Tavern. In the foreground is a 1928 Star automobile owned by Pauline Neely, the last tavern operator. The cave was on the J. T. Sullivan farm, now part of the York VA Medical Center campus.

Written by

Greg Tucker

Rutherford County is honeycombed by 129 documented caves. The best known and most spectacular is the Snail Shell Cave system with seven known entrances and over 12 miles of charted passages near Rockvale. The most fabled and neglected is the so-called Black Cat Cave, which lies under the Lebanon Pike west of the York VA Medical Center campus.

Every cave has its stories. Several Rutherford caves served as places of refuge and concealment for Confederate forces during the Civil War. Local caves also served to conceal the production and inventories of a number of 'shine entrepreneurs during ...